General News of Wednesday, 8 June 2016
Source: Myjoyonline.com
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The Director of Generation and Transmission at the Power Ministry has assured that there will be an improvement in current power situation from next month.
The recent shutdown of the Jubilee FPSO vessel triggered frequent power cuts especially in the capital, with many describing it as a gradual return to the days of load shedding.
Engineer William Sam Appiah in an interview with Joy Business Editor, Emmanuel Agyei, attributes it to challenges with generation.
“Akosombo is one plant that can generate up to 1020 megawatts, today we are doing barely 400 because the water level has gone down. We are also having challenges with fuel,” Engineer Appiah explained.
He said the lack of fuel is the reason is why there is capacity sitting idle at Tema, adding that the problem of fuel, hydrology and some units having to do mandatory maintenance is taking its toll on efficient power delivery.
“That is the reason why demand is 2200 unfortunately, we are only able to generate about 1900 so that deficit is what is seen in certain areas during the night,” Engineer Appiah said.
The concern for many is the failure of ECG to duly communicate by way of a timetable to enable especially businesses to plan.
Mr Appiah admits this is worrying but explains things should stabilize by the end of the month.
“It is not fair not to announce it but then you cannot announce it because a lot of these things are a lot more fluid which makes it difficult, but ECG actually tells their customers,” he said.
The Aboadze plant he explained is done for mandatory maintenance and the Jubilee is producing below capacity but “we are expecting that by the end of June, the plants will come up and we are also expecting some gas intervention in the east.
“That should give us some reserve so that even if a unit has to go down for maintenance nobody will see it,” Mr Appiah said.